If walls could talk

City Salon and Spa exhibits photos and artwork

Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2001

By Julie PowellCorrespondent

It's a simple black and white photograph of an old man's feet etched with creases from miles of dirt and years of sun. Just from his feet you can imagine the rest of the man, where he's been, where he is, where he's going and what his journey must have been like.

''Subsistence,'' by Athens photographer McGinnis Leathers, hangs at the City Salon and Spa as part of a show featuring a decade of his work spanning five continents, as well as paintings by five other local artists, including Katherine Christian, Sincarea Smith, Jeff Szwast and Laurel Wells.

Leathers -- who has guided trips in the Himalayas, worked in mission houses in Calcutta, done photographic jobs in Australia, South America and Africa, and traveled throughout North America on his own -- has seen some of the most impressive landscapes in the world. So one might expect his work to be glorious portraits of natural grandeur.

But while Leathers has certainly captured the serene majesty of the moonrise over Everest, his work continually returns to people.

''I'm a people person,'' says Leathers, who majored in anthropology at the University of Georgia. ''My interest has always been in people and culture, so when I pick up a camera I naturally gravitate toward interactions with people. This gets me into situations where other photographers may not find themselves. I find the photographs where I make some kind of bond, even if it's a smile, a handshake or just a glance -- those are the best.''

When: Opening reception, 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18; Show continues through the end of September

Where: City Salon and Spa

Call: (706) 353-3791

Jeffrey and Gary Andrews of The Fountains will perform an acoustic set during the opening reception.

''That's one of my favorite prints because of the way it came about,'' he says. ''I was in a field shooting and walking with some kids in a village in Northern India. I came across this guy plowing a field with two oxen, and I went over to shoot pictures of his plow. I looked down at his swollen feet and thought, 'Man, I want pictures of his feet.' He had all these calluses. His feet looked like somebody's hands who'd been working forever.''

Leathers made eye contact and smiled as the man approached him and the village children.

''Nobody spoke English,'' remembers Leathers, ''so I was just standing there smiling, chewing on a piece of sugar cane. I smiled, he smiled, and I held up my camera and pointed it at his feet trying to indicate that I wanted to take a picture of his feet. I bent down to get closer, and he stepped out of the way. He crouched down beside me on the ground and tried to figure out what I was looking at. I said 'No, no.' I was shaking my head and pointing at his feet. So he smiled and nodded his head. I bent back down to take a picture of his feet, and he bent back down and stepped out of the way. He was right there beside me looking for whatever I was trying so hard to photograph. Finally, the third time, I convinced him I was trying to get a picture of his feet, and he stood still.''

Interestingly, this photograph was taken just 15 minutes after ''Closure,'' which received an award for Best in Show at the Lyndon House Arts Center juried show in 1994 and first place award at the Georgia Marble Fest in Tate. This diptych of an Indian woman's face is as intimate and immediate as can be captured on film.

''As I was walking through the village with the children, we came upon a little terrace. There was a lady standing there. I came up next to her, and we were face to face about 3 feet apart. I smiled, made eye contact with her, and waved my camera like I was going to take her picture. Usually people are pretty clear whether or not they want you to take their picture, and she didn't seem to mind. So I framed up and took that one first picture. Then I guess she decided that was enough. She reached up, grabbed the rest of her sari, and closed it. I just shot one more picture. Those were the only two shots I took.''

As Leathers brings back photographs from his travels, Smith, a local painter and UGA graduate whose work is also on display, brings back a respect for traditional African culture and art gained after spending six months teaching in Botswana. Her acrylic paintings use themes from African culture -- something Smith hopes to bring attention to in the face of the culture's impending loss, as Africa becomes more Westernized.

''Africa is my spiritual home,'' says Smith. ''I am an African-American, but when I went to Botswana it felt like I really identified with the culture in a way that I never had in the United States. I taught English and social studies for six months at a local school. One of the saddest things to me was how quickly the traditional culture is being lost.''

The bright, vivid colors and traditional themes appealed to Smith, and she found when she returned home her painting began to reflect both.

Christian, who received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from UGA, presents two oil paintings of trees, which have hung at City Salon and Spa since its opening.

''Trees are so expressive,'' says Christian of her figural work. ''They are a lot like people. They move and develop like people and have their own behavior. I am particularly interested in the contrast of trees' organic lines and those made by man, like power lines. To me it's very sensual.''

Wells, who also received her BFA from UGA, has three paintings from a recent series of studies of yoga illustrating certain principles of the practice. Another graduate from the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Szwast, shows his painting ''Paper Thin Membrane,'' an impressionistic exploration of the notion of suicide, and mistakes that cannot be undone.

The show was arranged by Wilma Pittard, a neuromuscular massage therapist at City Salon, who realized what a great space the salon was for art.

''You've got people sitting in chairs sometimes for hours staring at the walls,'' Pittard says. ''What a great place to display art and expose people to local artists who otherwise might not venture into a gallery.''

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, August 16, 2001.